Instead of You
by Mila Rose
Summary: If Naruto was deemed an unsuitable container for Kyuubi. If instead of him... it was someone else? Different lives and a different universe.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Yay. Welcome. Enjoy it, if you can. This idea originated when I was searching for Shikamaru's birthday. Then I realized how close it was to Naruto's. Did you know Ino's and Shikamaru's birthday was one day apart?

Summary: If Naruto was deemed an unsuitable container for Kyuubi. If instead of him... it was someone else? Different lives and a different universe.

I solemnly declare that I do not own Naruto.

* * *

"_Nara Shikarmaru..."_

_The baby gurgled and reached out a hand as if to grab something. A second later, his hands dropped. Instead, he chose to blink blearily at the man holding him, as if deeming it too troublesome to take back his bottle of milk._

"_I'm... sorry."_

_A flash of light fell, and the baby felt a burst of pain from his stomach. For the first time, the nearly three weeks old baby let out a full blown cry, tears leaking out of his tiny eyes._

_The man holding him fell onto the ground, dead. Before Nara Shikamaru could follow his fate, another man flew towards the baby faster than normal human eyes could follow to grab him._

_And Nara Shikamaru fell asleep, exhausted, unknowing that fate had just taken an extremely unhealthy interest in him._

_Somewhere not too far away, a newborn baby took its first breath of air and cried._

* * *

"Team ten, Hyuuga Negi, Tenten, Nara Shikamaru. Team - "

Pretending that one was sleeping was actually a type of fine arts that consists of advance controlling abilities and skills. The rate of breathing, muscular contractions, eye movements, all had to be coordinated exactly, precisely to the dot. Should any of them appear less than being fully natural, then one would run the risk of ordinary civilians finding out one's current state of consciousness. And if ordinary civilians could find out, there was nothing to be said about enemy Ninja. Which was why Shikamaru had taken up the initiative (really) to perfect that particularly fine art. Every moment of the day, at every opportunity he had.

After all, _damn good _blackmail materials could be heard if the people surrounding him thought that he was lost to the world of consciousness.

Currently, Iruka-sensei was reading out the list of people to be grouped into their genin teams. He was in the same group as Hyuuga Neji and Tenten, who was one year older than he was. He had been skipped a year of academy due to most unfortunate circumstances through no fault of his. If someone had to be blamed, then Nara Shikamaru supposed that the demon sealed on his belly would be that someone. Or something. He never quite figured out whether it was technically a person or not.

Finally, the team assignments were completed. They were told that their Jonin instructor would be meeting them that afternoon after a long lunch break. Shikamaru didn't care much about that, since he already knew who their Jonin instructor was going to be. He shifted around until he was at a more comfortable position, and gave a small yawn. Not to mention, he was really more sleepy than hungry... His mother called him up so early in the morning too... So maybe he would just catch a few winks of sleep first...

"Hi! I'm Tenten. This is Nara Shikamaru right? Nice to meet you."

It looked like his sleep and Shikamaru were just not meant to be.

Sitting up straighter in his seat, he gave a lazy grin and shook that hand which the girl in front of his table was offering.

"Nice to meet you too."

He supposed that now, he should introduce himself to his other teammate. Reluctantly, Nara Shikamaru stood up and walked over to where Hyuuga Neji sat at, with Tenten following behind him. His sleep was going further and further away from him. Going… going… gone.

He sighed.

"Yo, Hyuuga. Seems like we are going to be teammates."

Hyuuga Neji turned his head to look at the source of the voice, and nodded his head slightly.

"Nara Shikamaru. Tenten."

"Why don't we have lunch together? I mean, we're supposed to meet our sensei later anyway..." Tenten suggested.

Shikamaru shrugged. He had no problem with that. Hyuuga Neji just nodded his head.

* * *

The cafeteria was unusually empty. That was to be expected, at that time of the day. Shikamaru immediately went to his usual stall and got his usual food. Along the way, he had to walk over a badly made wire trap, maneuver his way around several kunais lying unassumingly on the ground, hop skillfully over a slippery patch of floor, before he finally arrived back at his seat. (which he then proceeded to swipe away the whoopee cushion disguised in the color of the chair) Even then, he took out a silver needle and poked it into his food.

Only after checking that the silver needle was still silver, that Shikamaru took a bite out of his food.

Under his breath, he muttered 'troublesome'.

That was not paranoia. Not at all.

His two other teammates had gone through much of the same procedure as well. Ever since the first day of school, they learned to avoid intentional and unintentional traps laid in place around the school grounds by academy students learning to be Ninja. After all, getting caught in those would be potentially embarrassing but not particularly harmful in the academy. However in the real world, those could easily cost them their lives.

Nara Shikamaru surveyed his surroundings as he ate and chewed his food slowly. He had to worry about his safety. Though eating in the academy was significantly less dangerous than if he ate in public, there was the matter of vengeful teachers out to seek his life (which was interlinked coincidentally with the nine-tailed demon fox's).

The last time he had been eating out in public…

It seemed like a sad fact that people were out to get a boy's life. But it was the truth of the ninja world. Too many had lost so much. Too much. Forgiveness was not a virtue much ingrained in the human society, much less the ninja one. And ninjas had particularly long and warped memories.

Occasionally, the unfairness of it made him angry that they would take it out on him. After all, _he_ didn't kill their family, _he_ didn't destroy nearly half of Konoha, and it just wasn't _his_ fault. But did the people care? Of course not. They needed someone to blame. And he was just conveniently placed to be a scapegoat.

Ever since he was young, his parents had to protect him from the planned assassinations, the looks of loathing. When his father went away, it was his mother that protected him. Throughout the years, the known chakra-enhanced protection wards his home rivaled the top clans in Konoha. As for the unknown ones... well, the inner Nara family knew, and the Hokage knew. That was all secret tunnels leading the way out, invisible rooms, hidden doors. His house was akin to a maze. A maze in a fortress to be exact.

He supposed he coud have hated them, but really. Hatred was too troublesome. Shikamaru preferred if he didn't have to deal with it at all. In his observation, Hatred consumes the human's logical part of the brain, and he prized logic more than anything. So why should he waste effort to hate people not worth his time? Only a fool would be angry at general humans' stupidity.

_**Poof!**_

"Eep!"

Without much as a blink of an eyelash, Shikamaru looked up dully from his rice to look at his new Jonin sensei – Sarutobi Asuma.

Despite looking slightly rougher around the edge than the photo in the file that Shikamaru had sneaked a peek of, the Ninja standing in front of him was clearly the son of the sandaime Hokage.

"Oh? You three are still eating then? Then you don't mind me grabbing a bite too, eh?"

Before Shikamaru or any of his two teammates could say anything, their Jonin sensei was already at the stalls, ordering.

Tenten huffed.

"Appearing of nowhere like that..." She bent down to pick up the spoon that had flown out of her hand when he appeared beside her.

"AH! Sorry about that."

The spoon dropped on the floor with a 'clang' again.

Shikamaru watched the exchange with slight amusement. So far, he detected none of the hostility toward him that even an idiot could sense when someone hated them. Their new sensei appeared to be mostly neutral about his prisoner locked behind a jail made secure by a flimsy piece of paper infused with chakra. In Shikamaru's mind, that already earned him some points.

"So, team ten. Start introducing yourselves. Your name, likes, dislikes, dreams and all that."

"Why don't _you_ introduce yourself first." Tenten said, still annoyed about the 'spoon incident'.

"OK. I'm Sarutobi Asuma, your Jonin sensei. I like to play chess, dislike snakes, and my dream is to get more money. But the main focus isn't on me. It's on you three. So next!"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow internally. Outwardly, although Sarutobi Asuma seemed to have said a lot about himself. In hindsight, he had revealed nothing much really.

"Right! My name is Tenten. I like to study the intricate designs of various weapons. Swords and knives are more of my main focus. I really hate people who are prejudiced, sexist, racist, or biased towards a person for no reason. My dream is one day be on par with the legendary Sanin, Tsunade."

Compared to their sensei's introduction, it was certainly more informative, and it provided Shikamaru a vague idea of how one of his teammate might react to his rather well-known secret.

"Good good. Next one, the one sitting on the right side of Tenten."

There was a silence, as both Neji and Shikamaru made not a sound, both choosing to assume the other to be 'sitting on the right side of Tenten'.

Finally, Neji spoke.

"Hyuuga Neji. I like the colour white, and dislike the colour black. My dream is to be a strong Ninja."

Biting his tongue to stop himself from laughing at the incredulous expression on Tenten's face, Shikamaru knew that Hyuuga Neji had picked up on their sensei's lack of information and chose to follow it.

"I'm Nara Shikamaru." Shikamaru sat up straight and declared with the most serious voice, before slouching again in relief, as if he had just ended off a great, passionate speech.

Silence reigned again. Someone (he assumed Tenten) poked him painfully in the ribs. With a long suffering sigh, he continued.

"I like to watch the stars in the night sky. I dislike troublesome things. My dream is to be a strong Ninja with the least fuss possible."

And thus, ended everyone's introduction.

"Wow," Asume Sarutobi said slowly. "What a great introduction. Well done, everyone. Now I know so much about you people."

Shikamaru knew that sarcasm was said to be the lowest form of wit possible, but to him, it was better than being completely witless anyway.

"Now, listen here carefully. I would like to just fail you three and then go back to earning my money doing missions, but I can't do that without you going through the genin test." He frowned, as if the mere thought of the test gave him an unpleasant feeling.

"Tomorrow we will meet at eight o'clock, on training ground number ten. Be there early cause late-comers will automatically fail. The test will be held then, you hear?"

Everyone nodded their head, even Shikamaru, who usually didn't bother moving any part of himself unless absolutely necessary.

Sticking a cigarette which seemed to appear out of nowhere into his mouth, Asuma Sarutobi then stood up.

"Bye then."

With another _**poof!**_,he disappeared without a trace.

And Nara Shikamaru's life was just about to get as complicated as it could be. Though he didn't know it yet.

* * *

A/N: I would poke myself at every mistake I made. However, herein lies the problem. I can't spot any. Be kind to offer some constructive criticism, won't you?

Most likely, this would remain as a one-shot. Unless I got a huge infuse of inspiration or something. 'Course, reviews help. But that's not a guarantee either, since I haven't tried writing anything longer than 5k words before. That needs tenacity. Sometime I of course have. In near-zero quantity that is. If Shikamaru seemed a little out of character, that can be easily explained. 'Being hated as a demon containment' is one. If Asuma seemed out of character, then that would be my fault, as I don't really know his personality anyway.

Now, review?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Chapter 2. I actually typed chapter 2. Isn't that great? My muse insisted. I couldn't reject her. Naruto-verse is so fun to type, even if delving into Shikamaru's mind is tough at times.

I solemnly declare that I do not own Naruto.

* * *

Shikamaru never really liked studying, despite what most people may have thought.

And it wasn't hundred percent due to his in born laziness either (okay, maybe about ninety nine percent it was). The things taught in the academy were useful. And they should be. After all, the students depend on those lessons to survive. But for Shikamaru unfortunately, had already mastered most of them before even taking half a step into the academy itself.

Since he was two months old, he had a nanny (a highly trained ninja) to take care of him 24/7. Her name was Nara Kaede. She had been in her fifties then, but could still fend off five chunin level ninja easily. Though old, no one would dare to call her weak. Adopted when she was one years old, and brought up to serve the Nara family, she was a faithful and loyal member of the Nara family. Some might say, even more faithful and more loyal than some others blood relatives were. Whenever Shikamaru's parents were not around (usually gone for missions) she was the one that took care of Shikamaru. She had a hand in bringing up the unusual baby –host of the nine-tailed demon– and fighting off many attacks aimed at killing baby Shikamaru. Especially those that occurred when his father wasn't around. When he was five years old, she was killed while saving her ward from glass shards that exploded from the impact of several exploding tags on restaurant windows. One of the glass shards sliced opened her aorta, causing massive bleeding. From that day onwards, the restaurant windows were all explosive tag proof.

It was too late. From that day onwards, Nara Kaede no longer existed as well.

But before she had died, she coached him in all the things that would have been taught in the academy. And after she died, he entered the academy like the rest of the children who aspired to be a ninja.

And progressively got bored out of his little mind.

In the academy, he mostly slept through the lessons. Or pretended to sleep through it anyway. Only when he was at home that he got out all the scrolls to study them. He studied not because he liked it, but because it was necessary. He knew that knowledge was crucial to a person's survival. Knowledge was deadly, power in its rawest form. A jutsu that he didn't learn because he didn't want to could potentially be the crucial factor to saving someone else's live in the future.

He often got dirty looks from other student for obtaining full marks on a test (the ones that he was actually awake and present for) or throwing a kunai right at the bulls eye (provided he didn't just yawn and drop the kunai several times purposely). But hey, he couldn't help it if his brain was faster than other people, could he? Maybe that was why he was so tired all the time. He used up too much of his brain power.

Currently, he was sitting on his bed with a ball of chakra infused ball bobbing up and down gently in from of him, lighting up the scroll that he was reading. There was a particular jutsu he had just learned the day before, and he wanted to confirm the hand signs again. Mixing up the hand signs of a jutsu was dangerous. _Very_ dangerous. Even more dangerous than placing exploding tags on your own body. At most, the exploding tags would kill you. Or if it didn't, just take off a few limbs. However, mixing up hand signs could kill not only you, but the people around you. Or even the people fifty kilometres away from you. And if you had a huge chakra reserve like Shikamaru plus the Kyuubi, then you really didn't want to mix up hand signs. The world could end with a 'kaboom'.

The jutsu that Shikamaru was intently memorising was ranked B, mostly because it took a fair amount of chakra to perform. And thanks to the kyuubi sealed up in his belly, chakra was something he had in plenty. At first glance, the jutsu wasn't really useful. It was too time-consuming as it had around twenty one different hand signs, and too chakra consuming for an average ninja. It couldn't really be used in combat, nor could it be used in healing someone. It seemed useless. However for retrieval missions, it was potentially very helpful indeed. For Shikamaru, it was perfect. He had the chakra after all. As for the hand signs, he was sure that he could commit them to memory if he concentrated hard enough. The justu was aptly named the 'Retrival Jutsu'. For that was what it was. Using the justu allowed the user to instantly teleport an object to where the user was standing at. As long as the object was within the user's sight, it could be done. However, the downside of it was that the bigger the object and the further away it was, the more chakra it consumed to teleport it. Even a small object like a scroll would use up three quarters of an average jonin's chakra reserves.

But Shikamaru was very interested in learning it mainly because he hadn't found the scroll in the Nara's family library like usual. Instead, it was cleverly disguised as the back of a portrait of a dragon and a tiger fighting on the wall of the dungeons. And that scroll only held that one jutsu too. Of course he would be interested in learning it. Who wouldn't be?

In addition to that, there were areas on the scroll that seemed to be blotched with water purposefully, erasing some of the other hand-signs. The word 'optional' was written on top of them. The jutsu worked just fine without it, but Shikamaru couldn't help but wonder what the 'extra' hand signs' were for.

Finally deciding that every single hand signs had been engraved deep into his brain, Shikaru dispelling the ball of light. His room was immediately plunged into darkness. With a few mumbled words and more hand signs, the scroll disappeared too.

* * *

"Listen up, because I'll just say this once! Here in my hands," Sarutobi Asuma held up three fingers, with two bells clasped tightly between the finger, "are two bells. To pass the test, you have to get one of the bells from me. Usually, the time limit is until afternoon. But this time, I'll like to do things a little differently. You have until tomorrow mid-day to get one of these two bells."

At that, he produced an alarm clock, showing that the time was currently four minutes after eight o'clock in the morning.

"The official test will start once this clock here strikes twelve, so you will get exact twenty four hours for this test. As you can see, it is still early." He placed the alarm clock on a log in the training around.

"This alarm clock will _not _be touched, you hear? Anyone who fiddles with it will get an automatic fail I'm not kidding. Don't worry about other people either. I booked the whole training ground 10 until tomorrow, so no one will bother the clock. The whole of Konoha is the testing field. I could be anywhere in Konoha. Maybe even in your own house. Probably in the Hokage's Tower near in the toilet, maybe in the bar, any of the training grounds... Wherever. I must warn you. The bell will be difficult to get. You must come at me with all the intention to kill. And you are allowed to do use any methods in order to get the bells."

He paused.

"Anything you can think of at all."

At the slightly worried look that came from his students (Actually, only Tenten looked worried. Shikamaru was quietly amused. Neji... was expressionless as always.) Sarutobi Asuma reassured them.

"Don't worry. I won't die. If I got killed by a team of three fresh graduates out from the academy... Well that's just too bad. Shows that I'm not fit to be a Jonin after all. I'm sure that for those of you that can do mathematics, you'll figure out that these two bells aren't enough for the three of you, right? That's right."

He smirked.

"If divided, one of you is not gonna get the bell."

There was an immediate tensing of shoulders from all three of them. They were no longer team-mates. They were enemies.

Their teacher smirked.

"Well. It's still early now, isn't it? I thought I'll like you people to mingle around here and chat first. Until the clock strikes twelve, no one is allowed to do any fighting. That means you are still team-mates, all the way until twelve o'clock." He took out a cigarette and lit it.

"Now, any questions?"

Shikamaru had questions of course. But he didn't ask them. His instincts screamed at him that there was something fishy about the test, as if a rule had been quietly hidden away.

"No? Nothing? Well then," he sat down on a log, "let's wait for twelve o'clock to come."

Tenten quietly took out a kunai, and started polishing it. Shikamaru leaped onto one of the stronger-looking tree brush on one of the trees near the edge of the forest and sat there, his eyes locked onto his teacher's form. Giving a yawn, he then leaned again the tree trunk.

As for Hyuuga Neji, he too, took out a kunai, but not to polish it. Instead, he walked up calmly to where the Hokege's son sat at, and held the kunai to his throat.

Tenten's eyes widened slightly. Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the drama.

"What are you doing?"

Neji replied coolly. "Just making sure you didn't escape. It'll be easier to get the bells if I didn't have to look for you all over Konoha."

Sarutobi Asuma shrugged lightly.

"Go ahead. I'm not going anywhere."

"Yet," he added.

The next three hours and fifty one minutes passed in a tense silence. Their teacher seemed to be still sitting on the log peacefully, as if he didn't have a kunai held to his throat. Shikmaru had dosed off after about ten minutes of staring. Tenten began walking around the training ground, as if wandering about aimlessly.

Suddenly, the alarm clock rang.

"Give me one of the bell before I slit your throat."

Asuma's reply to that was a smile.

"That right. And I'll take the other one." Tenten appeared behind him. "This whole field has already been trapped by wires. Only I know where the traps are. If you make one wrong move..." To demonstrate what would happen if anyone 'made one wrong move', Tenten threw a piece of paper at one of the wires, and the paper was cut neatly in two.

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. Women were vicious.

"Impressive." The Hokage's son remarked.

He grinned.

"But not impressive enough, kids."

Faster than normal eyes could follow, Sarutobi Asuma disappeared with a _poof!_ Only to be replaced by a leaf.

The leaf clone jutsu.

Both Hyuuga Neji and Tenten cursed. Neji made to activate his blood line, the Byakugan.

"Don't bother. He's not around this area anymore." Shikamaru leaped down from the tree he had been sleeping on.

Tenten glared at him.

"And why didn't you tell us then?" she demanded.

"Why should I? He'll just stab himself and disappear."

"Well, you could have saved us the trouble of all these," she grumbled.

Shikamaru shrugged.

"There are only two bells," he said. "And three of us."

Tenten's face showed a dawning realisation.

"That's right. Toddles, people! Happy disabling all your traps!" Shikamaru called out before disappearing in a whirlwind of leaf. He had a bell to get.

Let the games begin.

* * *

A/N: And that's it. I really didn't intend to continue this but since I typed it anyway, I might as well upload it, right?

Now, you know what I'm going to say right? That's right. Review.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: While this has been, technically, abandoned, my recent forage into the depths of Naruto world has partially rekindled my interest in writing this fanfic. I can't promise that I will finish it before the meteoroid hits Earth or anything, but well… I have a few ideas in mind that my muse insists I write.

So here it is. Chapter 3 of Instead of You.

I solemnly declare that I do not own Naruto.

* * *

_He was locked in a nightmare._

_A nightmare with absolutely no escape._

_There were people in his nightmare. People to his left. People to his right. People he didn't know. They were talking. He hazarded a guess that they were probably talking about him. He was partially correct. Because they weren't really talking about him. Not really. They were talking about what was in him. The demon, Kyuubi no Kitsune. Chakra of hate and anger. Silence soon gave way to voices._

"_... be dead." Someone with a hoarse low voice like an old man's, hissed out._

"_Shikaku will kill you," another low voice replied. He said the statement with a cold certainty. "Do not be foolish. You know better." The way the second man said 'kill' sent a chill down his spine. _

"_I don't care as long as HE is dead!" The voice rose higher._

_He willed himself to wake, to open his eye. He told himself that he didn't want to see or hear what was coming next._

_Nothing happened._

_There was a roar of intense fury, an animalistic cry that was filled with hurt, despair, and pure hopelessness. Then a flash of steel, before everything descended into chaos. A part of his life played out in front of him like a movie, scenes melting into one big blur of agonising pain, both physical and mental._

* * *

_He tripped over a doll. He picked it up and tried to find its owner, wandering around the area quietly. It was the first time he managed to get away from his bodyguards. Surprisingly, they were rather easy to trick. _

_A hysterical woman with ragged clothing ran towards him and slapped him. Hard. The doll was flung away from his hands as he landed on his rear end, a bruise already forming from where his elbows hit the floor. Too shocked by the slap to do anything, he sat there and blinked in stunned silence, trying to stem the flow of tears that he felt was coming._

_The woman was babbling angrily about something._

"_...Yuna! ... gone...!"_

_Almost as if from nowhere, a knife materialised in her hands._

_As if they had some sixth-sense that detected the danger, the few villagers that were around cleared the area. No one usually hung around when a fight seem imminent. They lived in a village filled with ninjas. Fights could oh-so-easily spill over to the civilian stupid enough to hang around._

_But what followed after could hardly be called a fight at all. Within a few seconds, his bodyguards found him again and with ruthless efficiency, Nara Kaede killed the woman._

_She fell with barely a thud. Her last word slipping out of her mouth in strangled whisper._

"_Monster..." _

_It was the first time he saw someone died in front of his eye. He was three. The doll lay motionless on the ground beside its owners, facing him._

_He would never forget their eyes. Both of them, the woman's and the doll's. Cold. Unforgiving. Filled with hatred._

_From that day on, the guards never let Shikamaru out of their sight again. _

_And Shikamaru never tried._

* * *

Shikamaru yawned.

His first action had not been attempting to track down his sensei. Rather, he was currently at home, catching up some sleep before doing some extensive thinking.

Doing too much thinking usually left him drained of energy… but sleep had always helped him to focus and gain back some of the lost energy.

Yawning again, he sat up on his bed and crossed his legs, Indian-style. Subsequently, he placed an index finger lightly on his temple and closed his eyes.

He knew it was futile to rush about Konoha like an animal in heat in search of a jounin that was determined to hide from sight. Yet logic dictated that his sensei probably… _probably_ did not vehemently wish for their failure. Hence he must have left some sort of clue behind as to where he went. As Shikamaru placed further thought into it, he found certain inconsistencies in the so-called 'test'. As far as he knew, genin ninjas on mission that were combat-intensive often travelled in groups of threes with their jounin sensei other than the occasional selected few chosen to specialist in their certain talented areas that demanded solitude such as hunter-nins.

It didn't make sense then, to have two bells… Unless…

Shikamru sank deeper into his memories and tried replaying the exact words his sensei used.

"…_To pass the test, you have to get one of the bells from me…"_

"…_to get one of these two bells."_

Shikamaru's eyes flew opened, and a small grin spread across his face.

Sarutobi Asuma never once proclaimed that not getting the bells would be tantamount to failure.

Although… he frowned a little. He did say something akin to _one_ of them failing… It was likely that he didn't mean the sort of 'failing' that the three of them had assumed.

What then was the test have truly supposed to measure?

As the answer came easily enough to Shikamru, his frown deepened. This was so troublesome. If only he managed to figure that out before the wooziness of sleeping late and waking up early made him decide to nap at home first. Quickly, he glanced at the clock and considered the situation, going through the different actions and possible scenarios as if playing Go. Going after his sensei alone… convincing one of his teammate before going after his sensei… convincing both his teammates… Neji's reactions… Tenten's reactions…

There were so many different paths he could take. But the main question was which one was the path of least resistance while still allowing him to attain his goal? There were three main things he had to consider – time, feasibility, and flexibility.

Some ideas he discarded immediately, some ideas he modified, some he ran simulation of subsequent events in his mind before discarding them still. Slowly, a few plan of actions solidified in his mind.

It was enough. Shikamaru knew that no plan survived its first contact with the enemy, but his plans tended to be hardier than most. But before that… he had some preparations to take.

Giving an almost imperceptible sigh, Shikamru put his first plan into action.

This was really so troublesome.

* * *

The slight strain on his eyes grew not-so-slight anymore, as Neji continued to scan his surroundings. It was obvious that their sensei was indeed long gone, but there may be clues as to his whereabouts that he may have purposely left behind. Paying a glance of attention to his other teammate, he found himself surprised that she had already dissembled the various wired traps.

Of course, he knew where most of them were due to the nature of his byakugan. Ninja wires were made to withstand chakra, and by infusing it with chakra, Tenten had inevitably gave him the necessary advantage to see through her traps.

"Hey Neji-kun."

Outwardly impassive but internally slightly taken aback at the familiarity of which his new teammate (though current enemy) addressed him, Neji paused in his scanning of the area and turned his trademark white eyes to Tenten.

"Yes?"

Tenten let out a small grin.

"Have fun."

With that, she jumped backwards and smirked as the famed Hyuuga genius had to jumped sideways immediately to dodge her thrown kunai and subsequently tripped over one of the wires, sending a barrage of shurikens (of lower price and quality of course… she didn't want to actually kill her potential teammate after all) at him.

Just as he landed and barely managed to catch his breath, another volley of senbons flew towards him and he had to jump again.

Tenten felt somewhat guilty as one of them cut his arm. But squashed that ruthlessly. She had a sensei to find, and a bell to grab. Being able to eliminating a potential competition that was mostly pure luck on her side. The byuakugan could see chakra… But once that chakra was removed…

When the sound one of her weaker exploding tags exploding reached her ears, Tenten barely managed to suppress her smirk. As much as she… liked… Neji, passing the test was vastly more important.

The smirk slid off her face then, as Tenten dashed forward to the nearest place she knew her sensei had hinted that he would be.

At least, she hoped it was a hint and not a red herring.

* * *

"Thanks."

The said chunin threw him a somewhat suspicious and overly hostile look before returning back to her work. Her orders were simple enough. But that didn't mean she had to _like_ it. She'd rather swallow one of her brother's disgusting concoctions that were meant to be tonic for ninjas, than talk with that demon again.

For a brief moment, she had wanted to lace the paper with deadly poison before giving it to him, but refrained. It was a bad idea altogether. It was a bad time, and an even worst place to do it.

So she had gritted her teeth and silently handed him the piece of paper the jounin Sarutobi Asuma had asked her to pass to one of his genins should they drop by for it.

…_I'm sorry, Ayu… for not being to avenge for you…_

Shikamaru quietly took the piece of paper from one of the lowest chunin seated at the administration section, whose desk happened to be closest to the only toilet in that level.

On his way out of Hokage Tower, he could sense the barely suppressed disgust at his presence. Hence it was a relief for him to be out of the tower. Immediately, he used the shadow cast by the tower itself and slouched into it.

Using the same shadows, he opened the papers carefully; ready to escape by melting through the shadows should it proved to be necessary. It would take quite a bit of his chakra, but then again, it was hardly a difficult choice between losing his chakra and losing his life. He would have henged into one of his teammate in the first place, if it wasn't for the fact that the entire Hokage Tower was set to detect such deceptions. He didn't want to set off any alarms, and it would be much too troublesome to concentrate on a henge with his unusually large chakra supplies anyway.

The paper turned out to be just that… a paper. Granted, there were words written on it, but otherwise the paper seemed safe to hold.

Quickly, he scanned through the words on the paper.

_Yxo yp dro lovvc kbo yx dro wowybskv cdyxo_

He raised an eyebrow, mentally reviewing and repeating once again his interactions with his sensei. He recognized the way the message was coded. He just needed the code's number…

A few minutes later, Shikamaru straightened up. He had deciphered the code. But he knew it could hardly be that simple. Just as he was about to leave, there was an itch at the back of his neck.

He twitched.

Tenten soon came into view, her facial expression that of grim determination. Briefly, he wondered what happened to Neji… He would have liked to ask, but the current judging by the aura that Tenten was giving off, on second thought, he wouldn't.

Women are as troublesome as ever.

Slouching again, he placed his hands in his pockets and waited till Tenten came out of the tower with a glare that could turn his pineapple hair to charred pineapple hair, and stepped out of the shadows to greet her.

"Yo Tenten."

* * *

"Yo Tenten."

Successfully suppressing the urge to yelp yet again at being surprised, Tenten looked suspiciously at the calm visage of her new teammate standing in front of her. Her hands inched towards her kunai pouch. Surely he wouldn't dare to attack her in front of the Hokage's Tower itself?

"What… what do you want?"

"I want us to work together."

Her eyes widened in surprised for a moment. Work together…? She contemplated the situation briefly. Neji had been temporarily taken out of the equation (at least, she hope he had been taken out of the equation… or she was going to have a highly pissed off member of the Hyuuga clan after her…). There were two bells, and the Nara clan's famed shadow jutsu would complement her attacks. He could hold their sensei down while she pummelled him with weapons.

"All right then," she agreed. "Let's shake hands on it. Truce?"

But Shikamaru shook his head.

"I mean work together as a team. Neji, you, and me."

Now she was… puzzled.

"Shikamaru, there are only two bells. Unless you want to give up your own bells…"

"Yeah, there are two bells. But Asuma sensei never said that each of us had to get one bell. He just said that we had to get one of the bells."

"…" Tenten opened her mouth… and closed it.

"Uh…" She swallowed. "Neji… he's a forgiving type of person, right?"

Shikamaru sighed and looked up at the gradually waning colours of the sky.

How... troublesome.

* * *

A/N: I've always wondered why codes weren't used more often in the Naruto world…

Another disclaimer here. Any inconsistencies, wrong jutsu names, whatever, chalk it up to it being AU.

FAQs:

**What the hell? FOUR years?**

Well yeah. School, work, etc. You know the drill.

**Pairing?**

Still InoxShika. Although that can change and probably won't happen for a good long while.

**What happened to Ino/Lee/Naruto/etc?**

Yeah. Them. I do know what happened to them. Give me some credit, man. I'm not a writer for nothing.

But me knowing doesn't mean I'm going to tell you.

Have fun guessing. Virtual cookies to those who can guess right.


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